WIST Quotations

Holst, Gustav -- Letter (1921) to William Gillies Whitaker

Dave — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 17:28:08 +0000

Never compose anything unless the not composing of it becomes a positive nuisance to you.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) English composer, arranger and teacher
Letter (1921) to William Gillies Whitaker
(Source)

In Gertrude Norman, Miram Shrifte (eds.), Letters of Composers (1946).

Imogen Holst, his only child, notes the phrase in The Music of Gustav Holst (1951) as "his favourite piece of advice," and in Gustav Holst: A Biography, ch. 11 (1969) as his referring to it as a "good rule."

Banksy -- Wall and Piece, Introduction (2005)

Dave — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 17:30:10 +0000

The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you’re never allowed to answer back. Well, they started this fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back.

Banksy (b. 1974?) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, Introduction (2005)
(Source)

Gravina, Gian Vincenzo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 20:32:49 +0000

A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina (1664-1718) Italian man of letters and jurist
(Attributed)

The actual provenance of this quotation is unknown. The earliest reference is in Reader's Digest (1949-03), where it is attributed by a contributor to Gravina, but identifying him as a contemporary author; the connection to the 18th Century Italian author and jurist is therefore tenuous.

Also attributed to Oscar Wilde (but not until long after his death), John C. MacDonald (who did use it, but attributed it to Gravina), and Roger Ebert (who did use it, but attributed it to John D. MacDonald).

A similar phrase can be found in Marcel Proust, The Captive [La Prisonnière], Part 1, ch. 1 (1923) [tr. Moncrieff (1929)] (Part 6 of his Remembrance of Things Past [A la Recherche du Temps Perdu]) [English, French]:

Mamma would write to me: “Mme. Sazerat gave us one of those little luncheons of which she possesses the secret and which, as your poor grandmother would have said, quoting Mme. de Sévigné, deprive us of solitude without affording us company.”

[Maman m’écrivait : «Mme Sazerat nous a donné un de ces petits déjeuners dont elle a le secret et qui, comme eût dit ta pauvre grand’mère, en citant Mme de Sévigné, nous enlèvent à la solitude sans nous apporter la société.»]

More information and research into the quotation's origin can be found here: Quote Origin: A Bore Is a Person Who Deprives You of Solitude Without Providing You with Company – Quote Investigator®. QI says some very nice things about me and this site regarding the preliminary research I did on the question of authorship.

Huxley, Aldous -- Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934)

Dave — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:14:24 +0000

Little boys may be an intolerable nuisance; but when they are not there we regret them, we find ourselves homesick for their very intolerableness.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934)